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POPSWar Zero Nothing Honorable About the Vietnam War
Between one and two million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans were sent to their deaths by a succession of presidents and Congresses–fed to the flames of greed, hubris, and stupidity. The event used to justify starting the war–the Tonkin Gulf “incident”–never happened. The Vietnam War’s ideological foundation, the mantra cited to keep it going, was disproved after we lost. No Southeast Asian “dominos” fell to communism. To the contrary, the effect of the U.S. withdrawal was increased stability. When genocide broke out in neighboring Cambodia in the late 1970s, it was not the U.S., but a unified Vietnamese army–the evil communists–who stopped it. Not even General Wesley Clark, shot four times in Vietnam, is allowed to question the McCain-as-war-hero narrative. “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” he argued. The Obama campaign, which sells its surrogates down the river with alarming regularity, promptly hung the former
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POPSObama Rejects Clark's Statement As I posted at the time, Clark's argument was valid, but " probably not the smartest thing to say ." While pointing out that McCain's military experience never really included life or death command decisions, Clark said, "I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." Not really the best way to put that.
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POPSWesley Clark Takes Swipe at McCain's Military Experience Probably not the smartest thing to say, but the fact is that McCain's claim that his military experience makes him a better leader is kind of a sham. McCain never had command and never made strategy decisions. Just being in the military doesn't automatically give you leadership experience -- you kind of have to had actually led. Which, BTW, Clark has done.
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POPSPlaying 'hardball' Ben Smith on Obama's supposedly rough means of winning his first significant political victory.
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POPSPre-employment Detective Services Pre-employment screening of Employsecure includes checking employee’s education qualification, previous employment history, credit history, criminal background and driving violations.
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POPSAnd the end of political apathy. Let's keep it simple, folks. It's not NAFTA or Social Security that will beat McCain. It's 3 dollar milk, shrinking wages, skyrocketing gas prices and a war that has delivered nothing but three dollar milk, shrinking wages and skyrocketing gas prices.
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POPSCooking Monster He did THAT and the Mrs. jumped on me for some unknown reason... something about 'watch him'... isn't taking a photo of someone a qualification for 'watching' them? I certainly thought so (still do)...
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POPSThe science of terror To study ‘terror’ one needs not only to examine the insurgents in occupied countries, but also the terrorists at home, the ones who hide behind the jingoism and rhetoric of Western goodness while occupying countries and killing those that get in the way of their military, political, and economic goals. The neocon mind would be a great place to start. The mind -- neocon or not -- is a difficult thing to study. The mind of terrorism is equally complex and for it to have any validity it needs to begin at home where much of the global terror begins.
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POPS"Nowadays the First Amendment is the First Refuge of Scoundrels" Continuation: Section 319(2) reads in part, "Every one who, by communicating statements other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of... an indictable offense and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years." In the United States, this provision of the code would almost certainly be struck down because, under the First Amendment, restrictions on speech are apparently prohibited without qualification. This is an excerpt from the eightth chapter of the essay THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS FREE SPEECH AND IT'S A GOOD THING, TOO by STANLEY FISH, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS. See also the Canadian Criminal Code .
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POPSThe Peretz-Fararakhan Convergence Please read the entire article for full context. What caught my attention was the WSJs wry comment on the non-event or circumstance of having a white mother and it's implied burnishing of Senator Obama's qualification/capability/desirability for presidential office. The rest of the article describes in a little more detail the unusual nature of these polar opposites being in the tank for Senator Obama.
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POPSSquashed Kant: On the Nature of a Good Will Aw, Kant! I take it all back; you're a cutie. I don't usually like Kant, but Glyn Hughes' squashed version of his understanding of the inherent goodness of a good will makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside...
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POPSUh, Who Cares What Religion Obama Is? Evidently this "issue" has captured the imagination of religious people around the US. Maybe they're not familiar with Article VI of the Constitution. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. The popular view today would seem to be that this article was simply a "suggestion".
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POPSQuestion Faith It's time for us to grow up as a culture and trash the inhibition of questioning religion. Why should this area of thought get a free pass? The only answer I can come up with is that it would not survive public doubt and criticism. As we've seen in the Bush administration, religious dogma does have consequences that can negatively affect millions of people. To allow these areas to go unquestioned is ridiculous.
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POPSthe future of the world, in 23 pages This is the key document on climate change, and from now on you can forget any others you may have read or seen or heard about. This is the one that matters. It is the tightly distilled, peer-reviewed research of several thousand scientists, fully endorsed, without qualification, by all the world's major governments. Its official name is a mouthful: the Policymakers' Summary of the Synthesis Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment. So let's just call it The Synthesis.
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